


Safe and Sound

by orphan_account



Category: Glee
Genre: Delusions, Hallucinations, Hearing Voices, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mental Institutions, Schizophrenia, WARNINGS:
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-09
Updated: 2014-02-09
Packaged: 2018-01-11 17:39:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1175967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hunter's losing his grip.<br/>His whole reality seems to be slipping away from him and he has know idea how to stop it.<br/>Sebastian has been noticing something is wrong with his roommate.<br/>He's avoiding people, never eating or talking to anybody.<br/>And as Hunter slips further and further away Sebastian begins to wonder just how far he's going to have to go to bring Hunter back to the real world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Safe and Sound

**Author's Note:**

> Please read the warnings! 
> 
> There is a Hunter's POV and I have tried my best and done some research to delve into his mind as accurately as possible however Disclaimer: It may not be very accurate. That being said I have two very close friends who suffer from Schizophrenia and a great aunt that has a rare thyroid condition which causes her to have delusions if she doesn't take her medication so I am not totally inexperienced with "episodes"having been around people who have had them, so a lot of Sebastian's POV is based off that knowledge. 
> 
> Enjoy! :)

_Hunter’s POV_

It all starts with James.

Of course it really doesn’t, it starts long before that, but James is what makes Hunter really notice it.  James is pretty, not nearly as pretty as Sebastian obviously but still pretty to look at and his voice is smooth like honey and Hunter feels calm when he appears, which is quite frequently.  James is smart too, he tells Hunter things that he wouldn’t otherwise know about the world and warns him about the dangers. Over the months or years or centuries (Hunter couldn’t really be sure sometimes) those dangers became more and more present. The Warblers want to kill him, he’s knows this because he’s heard them whispering behind his back when they think he isn’t listening and sometimes he isn’t but James tells him that they do. James has friends; although Hunter can never see them he knows they’re there because he can hear them sometimes. They’re always angry though, constantly telling him what he does wrong and occasionally they’ll get so angry that they scream and Hunter has to cover his ears to block them.

He doesn’t like James’s friends very much.  

James first appears early in his captaincy of the Warblers. Sebastian is out at lacrosse practice and Hunter is trying to figure out a set list for regionals. That’s when James turns up and Hunter guesses that he must have left the door open or something and promptly asks if he needs help with anything.

“You should do Whistle” says James in calm voice “You could do some good choreography to that”

Hunter doesn’t think to question him, opening his mouth to thank him but James is gone and Hunter just shrugs it off, figuring that he’d come back if he wanted to talk to him.

The next time James appears is at about two that next morning.

Sebastian is fast asleep and Hunter is having trouble getting to sleep, tossing and turning constantly. 

“Try cough syrup”

There stands James, dimly lit in the moonlight coming from the dorm window. His blue eyes shining and entrancing and Hunter doesn’t feel even remotely scared of him. 

“Who are you?” asks Hunter softly, sitting up in the bed.

“I’m James”

“Why are you here?” 

“To help protect you”

Hunter furrows his eyebrows in confusion.

“But I don’t need protection?”

“That’s what they want you to think, they brought you here to hurt you Hunter” explains James

“Why would they do that?”

“Because your very powerful Hunter, they’re jealous and the want to get that power from you but you can’t let them” says James seriously

It doesn’t occur to Hunter until then that James is in a military uniform and he’s always been taught to trust military uniforms so he does.

“Be careful, they’re out to get you” 

And then James is gone again, disappearing into the night. Hunter doesn’t sleep after that, deciding to test out his new found “powers” and it turns out James is right. He is able to move the chair near the desk and turn the computer on and off without even leaving his bed. Hunter suddenly realizes that power like this could be dangerous and it’s his responsible to keep it out of the wrong hands or else the _world_ could be at stake.  So he doesn’t tell anybody.  He also takes James advice about the cough syrup and makes sure to drink it every night before he sleeps, to insure that he _can_ sleep. He assumes this has something to do with his powers too, maybe it’s one of the side affects of having them that he can’t sleep and cough syrup is the only way. He does however continue to go to Warbler practice and suddenly begins to notice that with the exception of Sebastian that they hate him. They glare at him and whisper horrible things to each other when he can’t see them and their horrible whispering is so annoying that within the first practice after meeting James he snaps. 

“Will you all please just shut up” he yells suddenly, making all the Warblers jump in surprise

They look at each other in confusion but Hunter knows its just an act, he’s knows what they were saying.

“Hunter we weren’t saying anything” says Jeff

This just frustrates Hunter more because they were, he could _hear_ them. More importantly he starts to wonder whether Jeff is one of the people James was talking about, a spy maybe? Somebody from the government sent to take him away?  He sees James standing just behind all the other Warblers, his arms crossed as he stares back at him.

“Jeff is trying to trick you Hunter, don’t listen to him you _know_ what he’s up to”

“Likely story Jeff, I know what your up to don’t think I don’t! I’m not fucking stupid!” screams Hunter, watching as Jeff’s eyes widen

“He’s not up to anything,” reasons Nick, holding Jeff’s hand

“He’s got Nick under mind control” explains James “Don’t look at him to long otherwise he’ll do it to you too”

Hunter takes James’s advice, averting his eyes away from both of them and instead staring up at the ceiling.

“Hunter are you ok?” he hears Sebastian’s warm voice say from behind him and Hunter looks at James who curtly nods, which means Sebastian must be safe.

“Fine, I’m fine,” says Hunter softly “I’m just tired that’s all”

Thankfully Sebastian drops the subject.

It’s another week before Hunter sees James again, they’re sitting at lunch when he sees him standing just behind Nick.

“I wouldn’t eat that”

Hunter freezes, midway through eating a piece of chicken and quickly spits it back out on his plate, ignoring the looks from the other Warblers at the table.

“Have a look at everything on your plate closely,” commands James

Hunter complies, straining his eyes to examine his food closely.

“There are little pin prick sized holes in everything” he explains

And sure enough when Hunter squints he can see miniscule holes in everything.

“They injected poison into it Hunter, you can’t eat it anymore”

Hunter nods and James disappears, leaving him to silently stir his food around on his plate in a clockwise motion. Ignoring the grumble in his stomach.

James begins to visit him at night, waking Hunter up from his cough medicine induced sleep. Soon he stops sleeping altogether but still takes the cough medicine occasionally as a precaution, just in case he ever wants to sleep. James and his conversations are nice, Hunter finds them calming and it stops him from panicking about the many people who want to kill him and steal his power.

“You mustn’t let yourself be fooled Hunter, you _know_ what they want” warns James

“I can’t stop them I-“

“Hush Hunter, he will hear you” snaps James angrily “He may be safe but he cannot know”

“I’m sorry,” whispers Hunter “I’m really sorry”

“You need to be more careful or they’ll brutally slit your throat without a second thought, all of them”

“I’m going to be careful,” promises Hunter 

“I’m just trying to keep you-“

“Safe” finishes Hunter, nodding obediently

“Exactly” says James and when Hunter blinks he’s gone again.

Hunters notices the spies more and more as time goes on. He tries to avoid Jeff and Nick, never looking either one of them in the eye in fear of slipping under the mind control. The rest of the Warblers seem to be under it though and soon most of the school so Hunter has to be extra careful to avoid most people at all costs. Taking the normal route to classes becomes more and more dangerous as the number of students under the influence grows. Then Hunter suddenly notices one history lesson that Mrs. Greene’s eyes are glowing _bright_ _red_ and James has to explain to him that the spies mind control has spread to the teachers too, the only way he could tell was by looking in there eyes.  So Hunter is extra careful when they talk to him, always taking a few extra seconds to check before answering their questions. James helps him with this sometimes but pretty soon the stress of avoiding people gets to much and things become so dangerous that Hunter decides that he can’t go to Warblers rehearsal anymore because of how many spies there were. He can’t talk to anybody. Not even Sebastian, who James insists is the only one not in on the plot for Hunter’s demise. 

That’s is when James suggests the journal.

It feels good to get things down on paper. The first two entries are almost therapeutic for him and help to calm him down when he begins to panic about the growing number of people out to get him. But fairly soon James’s friends begin to show up, or in most cases _not_ show up.

“You’re a fuck up”

“You’ll never be good enough for anybody, might as well give up now”                                 

“No wonder Sebastian hates you”

“Everyone hates you”

They’re loud and almost always talking, even James seems to get more and more frustrated with him. Sometimes appearing just to yell at him for not doing something right and Hunter always apologizes, sobbing and begging James not to leave when he does threaten to abandon him.  He doesn’t want to be left alone, not with James’s friends around. His diary entries become sloppier and less readable even to his own eyes and he eventually gets so frustrated with himself that he takes up a whole two pages scrawling Sebastian’s initials all other the paper. He isn’t even sure why he does this but it calms him down during a particularly bad Math lesson when his teacher won’t stop _looking_ at him in a way that makes his stomach churn. He’s so stressed that he doesn’t notice, he forgets he doesn’t realize until he’s back in his dorm-

His black journal isn’t in his book bag anymore. 

* * *

 

_Sebastian’s POV_

He pretends he doesn’t notice how odd his roommate acts.

Hunter had always been a little funny right from day one, uptight and proper but with a tendency drift off every once and awhile. Of course nothing about this is really  _weird_ and Sebastian ignores it because Hunter is a  _good captain._   A little strict maybe but he’s  _good_.  He also happens to be extremely attractive but as Sebastian soon finds out from shamelessly flirting with him, he isn’t “even remotely bi-curious”. So instead Sebastian settles for a steady friendship where they share a dorm room and talk from time to time about things, Hunter sits with him and the rest of the Warblers at meals and him Nick, Jeff and Hunter will occasionally have a movie night.  He likes Hunter, to what extent he isn’t sure but he really does like him a lot.  

So it’s only natural when he begins to over analyze everything.

It starts off with little things; Hunter is far less talkative than normal and sometimes zones out completely mid way through conversations and at one point completely snaps at the Warblers for no apparent reason, insisting Jeff was  _up to something_. But Sebastian just assumes he’s tired or something, at least that’s the answer he gets when he asks Hunter about it.  Then Hunter seems to kind of pick at his food, never quite eating anything and sort of just moving everything around on his plate in the same clockwise motion. Over and over again. His usual muscular build becomes leaner as he begins to lose weight and the only time Sebastian ever sees him eat is when  _he_  is the one giving him the food. So Sebastian just goes with it, making double of recipes in Home Economics for Hunter to eat and ignores the nagging feeling that it’s not exactly normal. 

Then it starts.

It’s about one in the morning when Sebastian is awoken by Hunter’s hushed voice. He assumes its just sleep talking and decides not to bother opening his eyes and tries to get back to sleep. But then Hunter continues and Sebastian soon lets his curiosity get the better of him and opens his eyes just a crack and there sits Hunter crossed legged on his bed whispering into the night.

“I can’t stop them I-“

“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry”

“I’m going to be careful”

“Safe”

Sebastian continues to lay there frozen, trying to convince himself that Hunter was probably just sleep talking and sleeping sitting or something and there was nothing to be worried about. But then it happens again and again and again and soon being woken up by Hunter’s whispered ramblings becomes a common thing.  But Sebastian doesn’t dare tell Hunter when it does happen, he’s heard all those stories about waking up sleepwalkers and is almost certain that’s just what it is, sleep walking without the walking.  Nick and Jeff are less convinced about that when he does tell them, insisting that there is something more to it. Hunter begins to talk to them less too and when he does it’s always hostile or forced and soon Sebastian notices that Hunter is actively avoiding everyone  _except_  for him. He notices how Hunter always takes the longer routes between classes, the routes with almost no people. He notices how he always seems to be on edge and nervous, kind of like he’s waiting for something awful to happen.  Even teachers seem to become dangerous territory for Hunter and every time he’s asked a question in class Hunter will eye them almost suspiciously before answering or sometimes he’ll just ignore them completely, staring off into the distance until the confused teacher just gives up and asks another student.

Then Hunter just stops talking altogether.

Sebastian has to unofficially take over the Warblers because Hunter pretty much stops going practices.  He’s always silent and distant. The only time Sebastian ever hears his voice is in the early hours of the morning, whispering obscenities into the dark.

“Jeff and Nick, spies, safe, he’s safe”

Its never makes any sense, always the same sort of word vomit.

Pretty soon Sebastian can’t ignore it anymore and decides to call an emergency meeting with the Warblers to discuss their captain’s behavior.

“We need to talk about Hunter”

There are concerned whispers among the Warblers.

“Seriously, we do” announces Sebastian, running his hand through his hair “Has anyone noticed anything weird about him lately?”

Trent’s hand shoots right up and the group of teenage boys turn to stare at him.

“Yes Trent?” sighs Sebastian

“He hasn’t shown up for a single rehearsal in almost 2 months?”

“We know that Trent”

“And he hasn’t been eating much and has been avoiding everyone” adds Thad

“Yes I know that too” says Sebastian “Anybody else? Anything new?”

The Warblers look at each other dumbly and Sebastian lets out another exasperated sigh as his eyes scan over the group.  Nick and Jeff are shooting knowing looks at each other and as Sebastian dismisses he meeting he makes a note of asking them to stay behind.

“What is it guys?”

Jeff and Nick look at each other again, almost guiltily.

“You know something don’t you?” asks Sebastian, the words not meaning to come out as accusingly as they did

Jeff opens his Dalton blazer and pulls out a black journal from the pocket, showing it to Sebastian.

“We found this,” explains Nick “It fell out of Hunter’s bag, we haven’t read it or anything but it might at least help us understand what’s wrong” 

Sebastian carefully takes the book from Jeff, stowing it inside his blazer.

“Thanks I’ll have a look at it”

Sebastian expects them to leave but they don’t, standing there awkwardly.

“He’s our friend and we do care about him but um- Sebastian you seem to be  _really_  freaking out here” says Jeff nervously shifting from side to side “Do you-“

“No Jeff” says Sebastian quickly interrupting “It’s not like that”

They both nod and quickly leave the choir room and Sebastian can’t help but wonder if it really  _is_  like that. He quickly pushes that thought out of his mind; they hadn’t seen how Hunter had been. He just simply just knew the full gravity of the situation. Yes. That’s what it was.

Sure.

Sebastian makes his way to the senior common rooms, the black diary seemingly burning a whole in his blazer. He knows he really shouldn’t be delving into Hunter’s privacy like this but really he has  _no other choice_.  Their captain is absent from rehearsals and regionals is only a few weeks away, if something doesn’t change soon… well Sebastian doesn’t really want to think of the possibility that Hunter could continue to be this way. He finds a nice, quiet place in the corner of the common room and settles himself down on one of the plush leather seats, turning to the first page of Hunter’s little black book. 

_This book is the private property of Hunter W. Clarington, if you are reading this now you are as good as dead when I find you._

Sebastian can’t help the little laugh that escapes his lips because it’s so typical of Hunter to write something like that, but then he remembers the reason  _why_ he’s reading it and suddenly it isn’t as amusing. As he turns the next page he realizes that nothing is actually dated so he’s going to have to guess when everything was written.

_James told me to start keeping this book._

James? Who was James? Sebastian wracks his brains, there aren’t any James’s in Dalton and Hunter never said anything about siblings.

_I must make sure it doesn’t end up in the wrong hands. It could be dangerous for the world and myself. Or Sebastian. James says he’s the only safe person now. I don’t understand how Nick and Jeff could betray me like this; I thought they were my friends. But the have been putting poison in my food; James has shown me the needle pricks in my lunch._

That’s the end of the first entry and already Sebastian is seriously worried, he turns the page and continues to read on.

_They’re all in on it. All of them. Why? Why would they do this? I am not a bad person and just because of the power ~~I shouldn’t have to~~ No. James never lies to me and I must never doubt him. They have chosen there side and I have chosen mine, it is best that way._

Sebastian is shaking now as he continues to read the scrawl on the page, the next 16 entries aren’t even coherent sentences and some of Hunter’s handwriting is totally illegible.  To say he’s scared would be and understatement. Sebastian has no idea what the hell was going on in Hunter’s brain but it isn’t normal

_They’re everywhere. I can’t walk down a hallway without them watching me, spying on me with there eyes trying to suck out my power. ~~The teacher are~~    ~~the Warblers are~~  Wrong. Everything is so wrong. I have a weakness now; I guess all-powerful people do. He’s safe. He’s the only safe person according to James. So I must stay away from him because he could be in danger. I could hurt him._

They next to pages after that are just covered in the same two letters.

_S.S_

Then the entries stop altogether.

Sebastian shakily exhales, closing the black book and clumsily reaching for his phone. He numbly presses the buttons for the familiar number and listens to the dial tone, hoping to something that she’d pick up.

“Hello?”

“Maman, it’s Sebastian” chokes out Sebastian, clutching the phone like his life depended on it.

“Darling you sound awful what’s happened?” asks his mother’s concerned voice on the other end

“I-I have a friend” Sebastian explains, “He’s been acting really strange and I- I know it’s bad but I read his journal and- oh Maman he doesn’t sound sane!”

“Shhh Bas, calm down for a second,” coos his mother gently “Your lucky, I have got my next patient for another few hours so tell me what’s up”

Sebastian takes several deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down, his mother was a psychiatrist and she’d know what to do.

“He isn’t eating and he’s been avoiding everyone,” explains Sebastian “I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and he’s talking to himself, just random shit over and over again and he’s always so distant”

There’s silence on the other end of the phone for a moment before she finally answers.

“And in that book has he said anything about people out to get him? Has he been nervous or skittish at all?” she asks calmly

“Yes, all of those things he also keeps talking about some power” 

There’s another silence.

“Does he seem like he wants to hurt other people?”

“No” answers Sebastian “But he thinks people want to hurt him, Nick and Jeff included”  

His mother sighs, “Alright Sebastian, although I can’t exactly bee hundred percent certain from over the phone and I don’t want you to freak out, it sounds a lot like Schizophrenia”

Sebastian’s stomach drops.

“Oh”

“He doesn’t seem like he’s a threat to other people or anything which is good but darling you need to take him to see Mr. Alexander as soon as possible, if I’m right he’s going to need professional help and the longer we wait the worse it’s going to get” she explains

“Thank you Maman”

“It’s fine darling”

Sebastian isn’t even thinking, the words come out of his mouth automatically.

“One more thing” says Sebastian “Maman I think I may-  _like_  him”

“Ah” she says softly “ _Like_  him”

“Would it be dangerous to pursue that?” 

“Not dangerous of such, it’s a mental illness Sebastian; but certainly unpredictable” she says calmly “Just wait for awhile ok?”

“Alright Maman, Love you”

“Love you too”

The phone line goes dead.

And Sebastian knows he can’t pretend everything is ok anymore.


End file.
